Onboard the Iberia A330, it finally cooled off after a couple of hours, but then it got a bit bumpy which did not help the sleep situation. We probably slept on an off for a couple of hours. Around midnight/06:00 Madrid time, the lights came on and a lame continental breakfast was served. I drank the coffee to wake up, but that's about it. I would have expected something like this in economy, not business. We skipped it as we knew we would get better food in the lounge.
We landed at 07:20, about 25 minutes early and the airport was empty. We were in the lounge by 07:30. I did check to see about moving to business class on our next flight, but no luck. As we were going from a non-Schengen to non-Schengen flight, we stayed in Terminal 4S and used that lounge. We were told that we would get a gate in that terminal and then be bussed to T4 where our flight was to depart from.
Let’s take a quick break from the trip report for an interesting aside. If you’ve read my other trip reports, you know I am a massive Liverpool supporter. Well, it just so happened that my team made it to the Champions League Final (again) in, uh , Madrid, on, uh, June 1 – i.e. today. I had really thought about stopping in Madrid and skipping our first day in Croatia to try and get tickets to the match. I even went so far as to book a Holiday Inn Express in the suburbs for 10k points just in case. In the end, I decided it was a bad idea for a couple of reasons. Tickets were outrageous and I could not even find two together anyway. Also, it is my wife’s vacation too, so making her sit through drunken fan events without tickets would have been unfair. Also, the one-way cash price for the flight to Dubrovnik the next day was expensive. As it turned out, I found a great place to watch the match in Dubrovnik, as you will see later on in this report. While I would have gone to the match (or tried) if I was alone, I think I made the best decision (for my marriage).
Back to our report: The Iberia lounge was very nice and the breakfast spread was pretty good, with different types of omelets, meats, cheeses, etc. plus decent coffee. We still had about 3 hours before we needed to go to our bus gate, so I took a shower, then we both found available nap rooms, which only had curtains, so they didn't exactly lend themselves to great sleep.
We slept for about 2 hours and then headed to our bus gate. The bus was crammed full of people and then we were driven to the plane. We got to our plane about T-10 and most of the people already on board had moved to empty seats as they must have thought the flight was mostly empty. A game of musical chairs later, we were ready to go.
IB 3154 MAD-DBV 11:40
The legroom on the A321 was not terrible but the slim line seats were not comfortable for almost 3 hours. There was also no IFE so I just listened to podcasts and snoozed.
We landed on time in Dubrovnik, but our luggage took a while to come out.
I had ordered a car from the Hilton just to save hassle. It was about $10 more than an Uber, but nice to have someone there to meet us. My wife doesn’t mind me being thrifty but hates when I am cheap (I’m sure other spouses out there can relate). We had a whole van to ourselves and a pleasant ride to the Hilton.
We checked in and received a nice room with a balcony overlooking the Fort. This is one of the nicest Hiltons I have ever seen. It seemed more like a Conrad or WA to me. The staff were extremely helpful and well-trained. The lounge was very nice and had a few different servings per day (breakfast, appetizers, drinks, desserts). The location cannot be beat – just a few steps to the old town gate.
As my wife got settled, I walked over to the tourist office and picked up our Dubrovnik Cards, which I had pre-purchased online so we could get admission to several tourist sites at a discount. As long as you hit at least 2-3 places (including the wall), it is worth getting. I also walked over to Caffe Bar The Kop, a Liverpool-themed pub very close to the hotel, and reserved a table for the 9pm kickoff of the Champions League Final. I had to pay to reserve a table, but that came with some special T-shirts and unlimited chips and salsa (woop de do). Most importantly, we had a prime seat for the outdoor projection TV showing of the match later that evening.
As we had napped in the lounge and the weather was pleasant, we decided to walk the city walls in late afternoon. It was not too crowded and we got some great pictures.
Then we had a little bit of time to walk around the old town, visit the old pharmacy and take some more pictures.
We found a great place for dinner – Aquarius – and had our first of many whole fish dinners and cheap, good local bottles of wine.
After dinner, we headed back to the hotel to put on our Liverpool garb and walked over to watch the match. In the end, it wasn’t the best match, but Liverpool won 2-0 so the crowd was happy. We stayed to celebrate for an hour after the match before finally stumbling back to the Hilton around midnight and crashing.
This last picture wasn't taken by me
Up next: Thrones and Michelin Stars